/**
 * The MIT License (MIT)
 * Copyright (c) 2009-2015 HONG LEIMING
 * 
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 * 
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 * 
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 */
package org.zbus.net.core;

/**
 * Codec handles the encoding/decoding of application object and IoBuffer on the wire.
 * 
 * @author rushmore (洪磊明)
 *
 */
public interface Codec{ 
	/**
	 * encode message object to IoBuffer 
	 * NOTE: IoBuffer should be flipped when ready to write
	 * 
	 * @param msg application message object
	 * @return IoBuffer object ready to use
	 */
	IoBuffer encode(Object msg);
	/**
	 * decode IoBuffer object to application object
	 * NOTE: if buffer is not enough to decode whole message, it should be restored and return null
	 * 
	 * @param buff IoBuffer from wire
	 * @return application message object, null if not fully ready
	 */
	Object decode(IoBuffer buff);
}
